Sometimes, good news sneaks into our world undetected. Big int as a separate data type has been available in Dataverse for about two years now. (more…) The post Tip #1461: Big int data type is available in Dataverse appeared first on Power Platform & Dynamics CRM Tip Of The Day ..read more

When you use loops like ForAll function in a low-code plug-in, ThisRecord will change its meaning from the table row associated with the plug-in run, to the row inside the loop. Disambiguating is fairly straightforward… once you know how. (more…) The post Tip #1460: Loops and ThisRecord in low-code plug-ins appeared first on Power Platform & Dynamics CRM Tip Of The Day ..read more

When you need to insert, update, or delete a large number of records in Dataverse, synchronous plug-ins can get in the way. Asynchronous plug-ins and Power Automate flows are triggered independently (out of process) but can be overwhelming for the system and can be throttled down. Did you know you can bypass either? Did you know you can do it in Power Automate? (more…) The post Tip #1459: How to bypass Dataverse plug-ins and flows in Power Automate actions appeared first on Power Platform & Dynamics CRM Tip Of The Day ..read more

No names in this story have been changed to protect the innocent—or was it to protect the guilty? Or to expose the innocent? Anyway, read on. When Megan V. Walker (her real name) asks a question, others listen because it’s often a non-trivial challenge. I have two tables, both with a file column. I want to use Power Automate to move the file from TABLE A to the corresponding field on TABLE B. (Easy, right? Not so fast! – g.d.) (more…) The post Tip #1458: How to copy files between Dataverse tables appeared first on Power Platform & Dynamics CRM Tip Of The Day ..read more

It’s not a secret that these days, data float around in automation using the JSON format. Submit a form, get JSON back. It is not human- (or any other carbon-based life form-) friendly. { "First Name": "Nancy", "Last Name": "Davolio", "Age": 42, "Influencer": true, "Customer": "Balderdash Primary School", "CustomerPONo": "PO100042810", "SalesOrderNo": "sy039978" } My fellow Power Automate Gymnast, Amey “CI-J” Holden, asked if a code-only connector can be created to help produce nicely formatted emails containing form submission results. And it occurred to me that the JSON Extractor CoC ..read more

tl;dr Use Extract JSON code only connector to select only a subset of object properties matching specified regular expression. (more…) The post Tip #1456: Enumerate and extract object properties appeared first on Power Platform & Dynamics CRM Tip Of The Day ..read more

While experimenting in a flow trying to find that elusive expression or action, I often catch myself doing this: The problem is, of course, I don’t bother setting Run After conditions and the result often looks like this: Now I have to edit, figure out what’s wrong, run again and again as I didn’t get to even try three other steps. If you find yourself doing the same mind-numbing experimental activities, make it a habit to use parallel branches! Add a parallel branch or two and rearrange the existing flow. The execution nails one of the actions as a solution in a single run! You can conti ..read more

tl;dr Access Azure blob metadata in two steps: obtain a SAS URI, then make an HTTP request — HEAD to read or PUT to write. Accessing index tags isn’t straightforward; secure a SAS URI that permits tag manipulation elsewhere, then return to complete the task. (more…) The post Tip #1454: Azure Blob metadata and index tags in Power Automate appeared first on Power Platform & Dynamics CRM Tip Of The Day ..read more

Today’s tip is from Eric Regnier. (Have a tip of your own? Send it to jar@crmtipoftheday.com) Ever wondered if you had the latest and greatest version of the Plugin Registration Tool (PRT) or Configuration Migration Tool (CMT)? And always had to Google Bing Copilot it to find and download the tool? You can now just pac it! From any console like VS Code or PowerShell, just type pac tool prt for PRT and pac tool cmt for CMT. You can also launch Power Platform Admin Center (PPAC) and the Marker portal from pac, run pac tool admin and pac tool maker, respectively ..read more

tl;dr Always use formatDateTime(), substring(), convertFromUtc(), convertTimeZone() to drop the time part and ensure the dates are in the same timezone. !tl;dr The datetime isn’t of any special type in Power Automate; it’s just a string representation of a timestamp in an ISO format. Yes, the format is sortable, so in theory, you could compare just the values. However, if you have a date input parameter in your flow, it comes as a date without any time part, so you might miss that birthday when comparing it to utcNow()! To further complicate matters, datetime values include both the time porti ..read more